Why Kite Eyewear is flying high

Walking through Westfield Stratford, it’s easy to miss Kite Eyewear’s practice, or store, as the company prefers to call it. Not only does the store front blend in among the well-known retail brands such as Office, Apple and Warehouse, there is no signage on the outside that defines it as an optician.

‘We don’t think of ourselves as opticians in a traditional sense,’ says co-founder Asad Hamir. ‘Kite is a hybrid of fashion, eyewear and eye health.’

It’s hard to disagree. Staff wear snapback hats, a pick and remix table where customers can configure frame components, dominates the centre part of the shop floor and built-in screens are used to promote eye health and of course, to send selfies.